Chapter 1 of 3
Three soft notes
The observatory was preparing to close when three soft notes came through the receiver. Imani almost mistook them for the lift arriving. Then they repeated, followed by a string of numbers. The signal came from a weather station on the quiet moon of Eos, empty since the last research team had left.
There were no ships nearby. The station could not have a new visitor. Imani compared the numbers with the old mission records. They were not coordinates or an emergency message. They described temperature, light and the movement of dust across a solar panel.
At the end was a short sentence: "Garden ready." Imani opened the station inventory. The scientists had left a small greenhouse and a maintenance rover named Lumen. The rover was supposed to switch itself off after one final inspection.